The northerly winemaking regions of Germany straddle the 50th parallel and are amongst the world’s coolest vineyards.
Nonetheless, vine cultivation dates to the ancient world—wild vines had been growing on the upper Rhine previously, but Vitis vinifera arrived in Germany with the Romans. Near the end of the 3rd century, Emperor Probus overturned Domitian’s 92 CE ban on new vineyard plantings, and viticulture followed the Romans into provinces north of the Alps. By the fourth century winemaking was definitively established along the steep slopes of the Mosel River. Charlemagne, the legendary beard-stained lover of wine—whose newly minted Carolingian calendar replaced the Roman October with Windume-Manoth, “the month of the vintage”—introduced vine cultivation east of the Rhine River in the late eighth century. During the Middle Ages, the Church was instrumental in shepherding the development of vineyards, and many of Germany’s modern einzellagen (vineyards) owe their nomenclature to monastic influence. As in France, the Church essentially operated its own feudal economy: it collected a tithe, or tax, from the parishioners who worked the vineyards, and wine made a suitable substitute for cash. The Cistercians of Burgundy founded the famous Kloster Eberbach monastery in the Rheingau in 1136, where they amassed the largest vineyard holdings in Europe by the end of the Middle Ages, with over 700 acres of vines. The walled Steinberg vineyard, an ortsteil within the commune of Hattenheim, was the monks’ centerpiece and remains wholly intact today—an alleinbesitz (monopole) of Kloster Eberbach for over eight centuries
The section on the Wachau includes the following text: ‘The vineyard of Achleiten, in the village of Weissenkirchen, is home to some of the most pedigreed vines, and the trio of FX Pichler, Prager, and Emmerich Knoll are amongst the Wachau’s finest estates. All three are members of Vinea Wachau, an organization of estates sworn to uphold the tenets of natural winemaking as spelled out in the Codex Wachau’. As noted in media reports such as this, FX Pichler has departed from membership in Vinea Wachau.
The section on Austrian Sekt includes the following text: ‘To differentiate Austrian Sekt with Protected Designation of Origin from general Austrian Sekt, bottles must carry the official seal on the capsule with the words Geschützter Ursprung, geprüfte Qualität, meaning “protected designation of origin and certified quality”’. With the recent changes in nomenclature for Sekt Austria PDO, I imagine this will need some updating.
The section on regions in Austria includes the following text: ‘Niederösterreich, or Lower Austria, is the largest winegrowing region in the county and contains more than twice the planted vineyard area of the next leading Weinbaugebiete, Burgenland’. ‘Weinbaugebiete’ should read ‘Weinbaugebiet’.
In the list of Austrian DACs, 'Ruster Aubruch' should read 'Ruster Ausbruch'.
The section on Austria includes the following text: ‘Qualitätswein, the highest caliber of quality and regional specificity in Austria, is sourced from a single Weinbaugebiete or one of the 17 smaller wine regions’. ‘Weinbaugebiete’ should read ‘Weinbaugebiet’.